Among the many notable scientists who passed away this year are the 10 listed below, whose contributions to the advancement of our understanding of the world and how it works were both groundbreaking and influential. Here, we acknowledge a collection of figures from diverse fields of science and from institutions and organizations worldwide. And whether known for their experiments, theories, or inventions or for their ability to instill in individuals and governments the significance of exploring and protecting the environment, all have had lasting impacts on science.

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Sir James Whyte Black (1924–2010): Born in Uddingston, Scotland, the pharmacologist was known for his development of the drugs propranolol and cimetidine, the former of which is used to treat cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension and angina pectoris and the latter of which is used to treat stomach and duodenal ulcers. Black won a share of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries.

Geoffrey Ronald Burbridge (1925–2010): Born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, Eng., the astrophysicist and astronomer played a key role in showing how all but the lightest chemical elements are produced through nuclear reactions within stars. Burbridge spent the majority of his career at the University of California, San Diego, except for a six-year period (1978–84) when he served as director of the Kitt Peak National Observatory in southwestern Arizona.

Frederick Jelinek (1932–2010): The Czech-born American engineer played a fundamental role in the development of computerized speech-recognition technology. Jelinek became interested in potential intersections between information theory and linguistics in the 1950s and early ’60s, while at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology. Later, he took a research position at IBM, where he developed the statistical techniques that ultimately enabled computers to interpret human speech.

Andrew E. Lange (1957–2010): The American astrophysicist was perhaps best known for his role as coleader of an experiment called BOOMERANG (Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics). The experiment, aimed at elucidating the large-scale geometric structure of the universe, used a balloon to carry instruments on a 10 1/2-day flight (December 1998–January 1999) in the stratosphere over Antarctica. The instruments allowed researchers to view the sky and map the cosmic microwave background (faint thermal radiation residual from the big bang).

Phillip Garth Law (1912–2010): Nicknamed “Mr. Antarctica” for his devotion to the scientific study of that continent, the Australian polar explorer served as director (1949–66) of the Australian Antarctic Division and leader of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE). During his tenure, Law mapped more than 5,000 km (3,100 mi) of Antarctic coastline and established three permanent research stations—Mawson (1954), Davis (1957), and Casey, which was opened in 1969 to replace the Wilkes Station after Law negotiated (1959) the transfer of Wilkes from American to Australian control.

Liang Congjie (1932–2010): Born in Beijing, China, the environmentalist was known for having cofounded (1994) China’s first government-approved conservation group, the Friends of Nature, and for having established the country’s environmental movement. Congjie also led efforts to save China’s endangered species, launched the country’s first bird-watching group, instituted environmental education in primary schools, and helped to publicize illegal logging in virgin forests, leading to a government ban (1999) of the practice. Congjie also contributed (1980–86) to the work of the editorial review board of the Chinese-language Concise Encyclopædia Britannica.

Benoit Mandelbrot (1924–2010): The Polish mathematician was universally known as the father of fractals, which have been employed to describe diverse behavior in economics, finance, the stock market, astronomy, and computer science. He wrote The Fractal Geometry of Nature (1982) and many articles, which offer a stimulating mixture of conjecture and observation, both into mathematical processes and their occurrence in nature and in economics.

Robin Milner (1934–2010): The English computer scientist, a native of Yealmpton, Devon, Eng., performed groundbreaking work with automatic theorem provers, the ML computer programming language, and a general theory of concurrency, leading to his being awarded the 1991 A.M. Turing Award, the highest honour in computer science.

Helen Margaret Ranney (1920–2010): In the 1950s, while investigating hemoglobin (the oxygen-transport protein in the blood of animals), the American hematologist discovered genetic variants associated with sickle cell anemia. Ranney was the first woman to serve as president (1984–85) of the Association of American Physicians.

Leigh Van Valen (1935–2010): In 1973 the American evolutionary biologist published “A New Evolutionary Law,” a paper introducing his now-famous Red Queen Hypothesis, which suggested that natural selection was an “arms race,” the product of coevolutionary interactions between species, rather than of interactions between species and their environments. Van Valen was also a pioneer in the field of paleobiology.